Pinterest, what is it really?

You must have heard of it. Pinterest, launched in March 2010, became the fastest website ever to hit 10m unique users. At the very beginning the site proceeded to operate by invitation-only while now registration is possible after an email request.

But what is Pinterest and why is it growing so fast? Pinterest is a content curation platform which allows users to organize and share beautiful and interesting content, such as photos and videos, they find on the web. Just like a bookmarking site.

Content is organised in "Boards" that work as categories. Each piece of content is called a "Pin". People can "like" your pins and/or they can "repin" them on to their boards, comment on them and share on Facebook and Twitter. It looks like this:

Like Twitter, there are no privacy restrictions, so anyone can see your posts whether they follow you or not. But in order to interact with another user, you have to follow them and vice versa.

Pinterest does have its challenges though.

Copyright is a major issue for Pinterest to deal with. The vast majority of pictures on Pinterest are pinned by people who don't have any copyright permission to do so. No one is really sure yet whether that is permitted.

Users have also complained about the overly-basic format for comments. Your caption will appear as one long line of text, regardless of how many words you use. There is no option for paragraph breaks, bullets or subheads, so lengthy descriptions get really clunky.

Lastly, much like other services that experienced rapid growth (Twitter for example), the company will have to quickly boost its infrastructure and achieve the capacity to host millions of videos, pictures and graphics.

I'm still testing Pinterest and i think it that it can be a terrific tool for sharing content virally especially if you’re into arts, jewellery, clothing, décor, etc. as it’s a powerful and easy tool to showcase your work. 

I'm not sure though whether i can think of it as "social media" since it isn't really about interactions as much as it is finding unique ideas and information. In this ever evolving social media world some things are cool and will stay while most others are just passing-by and are simply part of an evolutionary process. I think Pinterest is part of that process. What do you think?

Twitter, a nice story from Kenya

Chief Francis Kariuki

Chief Francis Kariuki very recently said: “Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive. 
Thanks to social media, crime rate in Kariuki’s area has dropped significantly to nearly zero, compared to prior periods where break-ins were reported on a daily basis.”

Francis is a Chief Officer who lives in Lanet Umoja, Kenya, and started to use Twitter in June 2011 to help his Kenyan village maintain peace and order. 
Where he lives the majority of residents doesn't have access to computers and Internet, apart from a few cyber cafes, however almost every household has a mobile phone and SMS are a major form of communication in the nation.

Kariuki's official Twitter page currently has a little more than 1,000 followers (apparently even the thieves in his village follow him!) but he manages to reach some of the 28,000 residents in his area with the help of his followers who forward his tweets via text messages.

Twitter has been associated with bolstering uprisings and anti-government protests in Africa several times, this time it’s all good news as Chief Francis’ tweets have helped to fight crime, organize logistic matters, and locate missing children and farm animals. Well done Chief :)

If you want to see how the Indian Police is using Twitter click here.

Social seating by KLM

The nightmare of all solo passengers: who will sit next to me on the nine hour flight across the Ocean? Someone boring, someone cool, someone that snores?

According to the Times, a recent poll showed 45% of respondents confessed to flirting on a flight, one-third of them met up with a fellow traveler after a flight and 8% said the encounters led to a relationship.

So last year the Royal Dutch Airline KLM announced the launch its social seating service in 2012 which is now live. The new service is called Meet & Seat and the whole point is to give passengers a better travelling experience by let them decide who they want to sit with. Very simple.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to KLM.com and log in to Manage my Booking. 
2. Go to the ‘Seating’ tab and click ‘Meet & Seat’ on the right. 
3. Log in to your Facebook or LinkedIn account. 
4. Select the profile details you want to share with other passengers and add your travel details.

This video explains it all:

KLM has a very strategic approach and it is more dedicated than many other brands to use social media and social technologies to add relevancy and meaningfulness to the lives of its customers. KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that "KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and its latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect."

KLM has also a great Facebook Page, check it out.

"The road is no place to socialise" campaign

Nice and modern campaign by the Roads and Transport Authority in the UAE created by Livingroom, UAE.

I’m not sure though about the guy, who is supposed to represent...Facebook? Looks a bit creepy. Thumbs up though!

Local blogger detained

As reported by several sites and blogs including Dhofari Gucci, Global Voices Advocacy and Digital Rights Watch, and many others in Arabic, I was shocked to hear that Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi, known for his controversial ideas, has been taken into custody because of blog posts and tweets.

Now, I don’t read his blog (now closed) as it is in Arabic and most likely I wouldn't agree with what he writes BUT is this is the way to solve a problem? The news is rapidly expanding online...are we going to shut all those sites down too? What kind of image are we giving of ourselves?

I could not agree more with DG when she wrote “I think this is going to get ugly. You can't silence people. I can't say anymore.”

Hopefully it’ll be all over soon. If anyone has updates let us know.

UPDATE: I've just been told that Muawiya Alrawahi was taken in just for questioning and that he's fine. More later.

Online terms parents should know

There's an ever growing trend among teenagers using social media networks called l33tspeak, netspeak or just plain internet slang. Surely you must have came across at least some of them...lol, brb, 143 and many more.

If you have kids this could be an area of concern. I'm sure all smart parents have set up filters on their kids' PCs to block certain words and/or sites but this is not enough any longer. Today's kids are lazy when it comes to writing and use single letter words to communicate with each other in ways that most adults wouldn't understand: U replaces you, R replaces are, o replaces oh, m replaces am, etc.

And your filters won’t pick up any of it.

Social network monitoring service SocialShield a few days ago released a list of the “Top Terms Parents Need to Know.” The list was curated from an analysis of commonly flagged terms identified by SocialShield’s monitoring engines as somehow risky, dangerous or illicit.

SocialShield has split them up into six categories:

• Warnings of parents in the room
• Requests to meet up in person
• Sexual
• Cyberbullying
• Depression
• Drugs/drinking

Click to enlarge

While the Internet is an enormous resource and one of the major technological achievements of our lifetime, it is also used by adults who are seeking to exploit children. Protecting children from Internet predators and scam artists is a very serious responsibility which we all have.

I also found a useful site which translates slang and acronyms as well as giving plenty of info and resources, check it out here.

Remember; keep your children from getting into trouble online.